With the development of modern husbandry, widespread abuse of antibiotics, leading to the residues of antibiotics in livestock products, has become not only a potential threat to the public health, but also one of critical factors influencing on the international trade of foodstuffs of animal origin. Moreover, antimicrobial residues may inhibit starter cultures for cheese and yoghurt production in the dairy industry. Hence, it is essential to effectively control and analyze aminoglycoside antibiotics residues in milk.
The maximum residue limits (MRLs) are laid down in the commission regulation No. 2377/90 within the European Union, are listed in Title 21, Part 556 (21 CFR 556) set by the
United States Food and Drug Administration, and are established in No. 235/2002 by the Ministry Agriculture of China, as well as similar regulations in other countries.
For the detection of antibiotic residues in milk, LC, HPLC methods, immunoassays as well as modified-RNA aptamer-based sensors have been developed for the quantification of aminoglycoside antibiotics, but these methods are time-consuming, expensive or lack sensitivity, not suitable for the fast on-site analysis. Besides the present analysis methods for antibiotics, the rigid control of residues of antibiotics situation also make the detection of aminoglycoside antibiotics a challenging problem.
Nano-materials are a kind of new materials with specific functions. More and more researches have focus on establishing relevant rapid and high sensitive methods based on the characteristics of nano-materials. Since first discovered by the Japanese scientists Ijima, Carbon nanotubes have attracted the people's great attention due to its unique structural characteristics and electrical properties, and lots of sensors based on carbon nanotube has been developed and more are under development. However, high-cost and difficulty to use limit the practical application of the developed sensor.
In the present invention, a sensitive, rapid, simple, and low-cost electrochemical immunosensor to detect the aminoglycoside antibiotics based on paper has been developed. The detection is very fast, lasting within 30 min. And this method also shows good sensitivity and can also be applied for other aminoglycoside antibiotics analysis following similar procedures.